Lucien frowned. Something stirred inside him, a strange and profound feeling, as if the simple act of giving her a name had set something important in motion... something too important.
But he didn't know what it was.
He had only given her a name. Why did he feel that it meant so much more? Was Vanessa special? Was it her blood?
'Damn it... Why can't I understand it?!'
"Tsk," he clicks his lips in annoyance and stops thinking about the strange feeling, fixing his gaze on Vanessa.
"Get up, you have to tell me about that ritual," he said in a neutral tone.
They leave the basement and arrive in the living room, where the corpses of the cultists lie on the floor.
The air was thick with a strong metallic smell, making it difficult for Lucien to control his vampiric instincts.
He sat down on the luxurious sofa, and Selene leaned against the wall with a neutral expression. Vanessa hesitated, but he motioned for her to sit across from him.
Vanessa nodded nervously and took a seat on the luxurious sofa, sinking her buttocks into the cushion and, with a glance, signaling to Lucien that he could begin.
Lucien stared at her intently. "Tell me. How did you come into contact with the cultists?"
Vanessa swallowed hard, and her fingers intertwined awkwardly. "It was about two years ago... My parents took me to one of their masses. At first, it seemed normal, a strange religion, but nothing more. I even thought it was... interesting."
Her voice broke. A tremor ran through her shoulders.
"But... a year ago, everything changed."
She took a deep breath, as if it hurt to remember.
"They started speaking Latin, performing strange rituals... and creatures appeared. Real creatures. When they discovered my blood type... they locked me up."
She stared at the floor, as if she were still wearing invisible chains.
"All I could think about was escaping. I didn't understand anything. But I heard... I heard that they wanted to use me in a ritual to turn me into a demon."
"So, you don't know how that ritual works." Lucien narrowed his eyes; that was the part that interested him most.
Vanessa shook her head, trembling. "No... I spent the whole year locked up. I heard nothing but whispers, orders, and screams."
Selene intervened, more coldly: "And why are they so active lately? Did you hear anything?"
"Yes..." Vanessa nodded slowly. "They say they want to bring in a 'black moon.'"
"What for?" Selene frowned.
"To become demons. Although I don't understand how." She paused. "But... lately everyone's been talking about a man named Loic."
"Loic?" Selene repeated.
"Yes. They say he's someone important among them."
"I see... I see... HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Selene bursts out laughing, as if someone had told her the best joke in the world.
Lucien and Vanessa look at her, confused, because she suddenly started laughing when she heard the name "Loic."
Does she know something about the cultists when she hears that name? Or does she know the person mentioned?
Selene stops laughing and looks at the two of them with an amused smile: "Well, this is certainly unexpected, but that bastard is causing so many problems."
"Do you know him?" asks Lucien.
"He's a half-crazy vampire who's wreaking havoc both in the vampire world and here, and he's being hunted down to be eliminated."
"Hmm... So, is Loic the reason why the cultists are so active?"
"I don't know, but he has something to do with all this. All I can say is that nothing good will come of that half-crazy guy."
Lucien rubs his forehead; it's been less than a week since he became a vampire, and he's already gotten himself involved with both the Inquisition and the Cultists.
Sigh.
He lets out a long sigh full of exhaustion; if he had known that all this was going to happen, he wouldn't have done those damn overtime hours that his former boss made him do.
That way, he could have avoided this whole series of events that he has found himself involved in against his will.
He gets up from the luxurious sofa: "Well, I'm going to bed," he says, letting out a long yawn.
"I'll do the same." Selene looks at Vanessa: "If you walk down the hall, you'll find an empty room." She points to a hallway to the right of the living room.
Vanessa was the only one in the room filled with corpses and the strong smell of blood, so, trembling, she headed toward where Selene had pointed, where, at the end of the hallway, there was a door.
She opened the door, revealing a luxurious room.
The grenadilla-wood desk and bearskin rug were costly and luxurious; however, there was a significant problem.
There was no bed, just a black coffin.
"Am I supposed to sleep there?"
...
The moon rises in the starry sky as the wind sweeps away gray clouds.
Mayla arrives at an empty mansion; Loic was supposed to be here, but unexpectedly, she saw him enter with another vampire and some Inquisition hunters.
'What are they up to?' she sighs, melting into the shadows to continue gathering information.
As she approached the door and crossed the threshold, the first thing she saw surprised her: there was a decapitated cultist.
The room was messy, as if there had been a fight, and it wasn't just the maid's body that was scattered everywhere.
'What happened here?' she wondered internally, unable to form coherent thoughts in the face of everything she saw.
She could see the bodies of everyone—vampires, cultists, and humans... A massacre had taken place here while she was away.
Then she heard different voices.
"Is the information true that those women are in those cities?"
"Yes, but Kaitlyn is in an abandoned mansion, so it's best to send an Oracle to confront her."
"Okay, how are you getting on with that black moon plan? It's not a complete lie."
"Of course it's not false; it's just not functional for a ritual to become a demon."
"Poor cultists..."
Mayla, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, suddenly felt something run down her spine like an icy thread. Her instincts screamed that something was wrong.
Very wrong.
"...Looks like we have a rat listening in."
The voice did not come from anyone present. It sounded behind her. Very close.
Mayla didn't even have time to think. A murderous pressure flooded the room, so dense that it took her breath away.
'Something's coming!'
The wind changed. A sharp whisper cut through the air.
Mayla reacted purely on reflex: she threw herself to one side as a dark blur advanced at impossible speed.
The impact of the air hit her face and almost dragged her along with it.
An invisible blade passed where, a second before, her neck had been.
The attack didn't touch her... but it did reach the entrance to the mansion.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The door exploded in a shower of splinters and twisted metal. The floor shook beneath her feet, and the echo reverberated throughout the hallway.